NCAA Basketball: Top 25 NCAA Tournament cinderellas since 2000
By Adam Childs
1) 2018 Loyola-Chicago Ramblers, No. 11-seed
Record: 32-6, Final Four
Beat: (6) Miami Hurricanes, (3) Tennessee Volunteers, (7) Nevada Wolf Pack, (9) Kansas State Wildcats
The Loyola-Chicago Ramblers took the college basketball world by storm during the 2018 NCAA Tournament. They had fantastic finishes, under-the-radar players and, of course, Sister Jean. They were the team everybody was rooting for and the country loved.
When you look up Cinderella team in the dictionary, you might see Loyola-Chicago’s picture next to it. Like the George Mason Patriots before them, the Ramblers are a team that people are going to remember for a long time.
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The thing is with this team, is they were pretty good coming into the NCAA Tournament. They were a trendy pick to pull off some upsets and they did just that.
Including the NCAA Tournament, they won 14 games in a row before their loss in the Final Four and 21 out of 22 games, with their only loss being to a good Bradley Braves team.
Even with the thought that they could upset the Miami Hurricanes in the first round, the way they started winning games caught everybody’s attention.
They hit a last-second shot to beat Miami and then did it again to beat the Tennessee Voluneets. They then slipped by the Nevada Wolf Pack by a point before taking care of the Kansas State Wildcats by 16 to make the Final Four.
Their run would end against the Michigan Wolverines in the Final Four, but not without it looking like they could pull off the upset. They led by eight with 11:25 left in the game, but then the Wolverines took over and ended the dream for the Ramblers.
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Sister Jean and the Loyola faithful would go home disappointed, but proud of how far their team had gone. I don’t remember any team capturing the attention of the country as this Ramblers team did. They are the biggest cinderella story in college basketball this century.